Advertising on the Mobile Web versus Mobile Apps

Thinking of doing some advertising in the mobilesphere?  Debating between ad placement on the mobile web versus advertisement in target mobile apps?  Continental Airlines recently ran a dual campaign on both, and measured the click through rates from each placement.  You might be surprised which one was more effective.

In 2009, Continental Airlines used MediaVest to run a campaign promoting its web site on both the mobile site of WhitePages.com and the WhitePages.com iPhone app. MediaPost News sums up the results nicely:

Both platforms featured a pair of text-based banner ads aimed at business and leisure travelers. Contrary to the expectations of WhitePages and Continental, the mobile Web ads (on the iPhone) delivered a higher click-through rate than the app versions. Without providing actual rates, WhitePages said the Web banners had a 135% higher CTR than ads on the iPhone app.

Why such a difference in click through rates?  Mobile Phone Development raises an intriguing possible explanation, stating that people are more likely to navigate to other site on the mobile web because they implicitly expect to browse to other sites when using a web browser.  While there is little empirical evidence to support this theory, I have a feeling that they are on to something here.